PM Narendra Modi to meet Afghan president Ashraf Ghani today

NEW DELHI: Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is due in India on Wednesday for a day-long visit that comes ahead of next month’s parliamentary polls in the landlocked country.

Ghani will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over lunch to discuss bilateral ties as well as regional security, including the possibility of peace talks with Taliban.

He will also address a “civic reception” organised by the India Foundation.

Ghani is expected to apprise Modi on the recent reconciliation efforts with Taliban. While senior US official Alice Wells is expected to hold a second round of talks with Taliban representatives in Doha, Russia has also supported the process to involve Taliban in peace talks.

India has backed Kabul on an “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process”.

Last week, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale had travelled to Kabul to chair a meeting of the joint working group on political and security cooperation between India and Afghanistan. He had also attended trilateral talks involving Iran.

Ghani’s visit to Delhi comes within days of Pakistan’s new foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s trip to Kabul.